Unfortunately it was at the job fair and it wasn't from riding cool rides or getting an intense mental work out from all the new things I learned and the people I met. Nope, it was a physical work out. I started my day out with Cardioke* (as I do most days) so I was definitely good to go on my cardio for the day. Which is why I was so annoyed when I got to the job fair.
It was either my fault for not paying attention to which hall the job fair was in at the Georgia World Congress Center or it wasn't included in the info I read. I don't know if you've ever been to the GWCC, but it's a huge complex with at least three exhibit halls. We took a crap shoot and parked in the gold lot which is next to Building C. The job fair was in Building A. We had to walk up numerous escalators (we walk up escalators, I don't believe in taking a free ride), down long ass hallways, through half of Building C and all of Building B before arriving in Building A. We were told that registration was to the left. So we went to the left and ended up in this long room (that we decided was easily 50 yards) that was partitioned off like a ride at Disney World or in the ticket line at the movie theatre (if you're at the theatre at Phipps Plaza). There were a lot of people there, but not enough to make us all have to walk the length of the room FIVE times just to get through the partitions. It was bizarre. They weren't checking bags, there weren't metal detectors, there was no actual registration like filling out a form or anything, I truly believe that we had to walk through those things to amuse the GWCC staff. And I bitched the entire time we walked the length of the room FIVE times. Poor Jamie, he is so sweet to put up with me in such an irritated state.
Once we got through the cattle stalls (I like to refer to it as that since it was utterly (get it?) pointless and I felt like we were aimlessly following the crowd to get slaughtered, how conformist of us) we had to walk all the way down the hall, down an escalator (which we had to stop on because the people in front of us were not walking), down another hall and just kept going and going until finally we got to a room where we sat for a few minutes before being led into another room for a welcome speech and orientation ("Here's how to read the map we gave you..." I'm sorry, if you need an orientation to read a map that clear and obvious (the room is a rectangle) then maybe there's a good reason your unemployed). Then we were released into the fair. The only way in which this fair resembled a real fair was the lines for the food vendors were ridiculously long.
Kudos to the Georgia Department of Labor and WSB-TV for throwing such a successful job fair because this place was packed. My Dad made a good point, there are currently 410,000 unemployed people in the state of Georgia. So if 10% of them show up, that's over 40,000 people. This fair was not equipped or laid out for that many people to show up (while we were there the news said there were 20,000 people there). We couldn't really get to any of the tables (employers, community services, education) to even learn anything. I thought at the very least I would be able to do a little networking, but you couldn't get near tables to even speak to anyone. It was insane. We walked the room a few times and decided to leave. Some of the employers that were there, that I would consider working for, I couldn't find out what jobs they were there hiring for. Call me a brat, but I'm not going to wait an hour and fight through a crowd to speak to someone at Comcast only to find out they're there only looking to hire cable installation people. I'm certainly not above doing that, but it's not in my career plan and to be honest, I have no idea how to do something like that. If they were hiring for the marketing department, that would be different, but there was no way of knowing. And I'm impatient.
So, after about an hour we hiked all the way back up and down escalators and down looooong hallways to the car. I swear we walked three miles while we were there.
Umm, the good news. I had a job interview today. And not for a job I found at the job fair (obviously). You know me, not counting my chickens before the eggs hatch (or whatever), but I felt really good about it and it's a place that would be amazing to work at and I really feel confident the interview process will continue. So yea for me!
*Ok, most of you probably have no idea what Cardioke is so I'm going to tell you. It's a work out video and it's this amazing mix of cardio, dancing, and singing (yes, singing! Like karaoke). It is so fun and it totally kicks your butt. I do it in my living room since there are no work out tools (like a mat or weights) involved. Your heart will race and you will sweat your ass off, but it is so much fun! I totally recommend it. It was created by and is hosted by Billy Blanks, Jr. (son of tae-bo dude Billy Blanks). Blanks, Jr. is really fun to work out with and he's been a back up dancer for Madonna, so that pretty much solidifies him as a bad ass.
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